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Columbus and at least three neighboring water systems have won a combined $3.7 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement with Swiss chemical-maker Syngenta.

Columbus’ portion of the settlement, about $3.1 million, is the largest among the nearly 2,000 plaintiffs in the suit that included community water suppliers in six Midwestern states, according to the law firm that represented the water systems. The communities claimed that Syngenta had contaminated their water with Atrazine, an agricultural herbicide it produces.

The city of Delaware won about $428,000, and the city of Westerville received about $129,000. Del-co Water Co., which provides water to rural residents in seven counties, including Franklin, Delaware, Union and Knox, also received settlement money, although Del-co general manager Glenn Marzluf would not say how much.

The central Ohio payments represent a small slice of the total $105 million settlement that Syngenta agreed to last year. The lawsuit had been in the courts for more than eight years when the chemical-maker agreed to settle.

The final hearing on the settlement was in October; checks to the water suppliers went out last week.

Under the terms of the settlement, Syngenta will still sell the herbicide to corn growers in the United States, and will deny any liability linked to the chemical.

Atrazine has been used by corn farmers to kill weeds and grasses since 1959. It has been linked to cancer, low birth weights, birth defects and reproductive-health issues.

Jerry Brown, a spokesman for Korein Tillery, the St. Louis law firm that represented the water suppliers, said the payments were based on the levels of Atrazine found in each water supply, how long ago the chemical was found, and the number of people each served.

“If you’re a water provider in the Midwest, you were probably contaminated,” Brown said.

Michael Pope, an attorney for Syngenta, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The lawsuit covered water suppliers who found Atrazine between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Iowa.

The chemical often appears in water supplies after a rainstorm washes it into streams and rivers that pass by cornfields.

Water suppliers can filter out the herbicide by adding powdered carbon to the water supply: In 2010, Columbus used more than 10 tons of powdered carbon each day to counteract Atrazine, spending about $10,800 each day during spring and summer.

Columbus has been testing for Atrazine since the early 1980s, said George Zonders, a spokesman for the city’s Public Utilities Department.

Westerville has been monitoring for Atrazine since the mid-1990s, said Richard Lorenz, that city’s water-utilities director. Delaware also has been monitoring about that long, said Lee Yoakum, a spokesman for the city.

Both Delaware and Westerville plan to use the settlement money to pay for future improvements to their water systems.

The Columbus City Council could discuss the settlement money at its meeting on Monday, Zonders said.

The water suppliers in the lawsuit serve about 52 million people across the Midwest. Suppliers throughout Ohio won settlements, though most of the Ohio water systems affected are concentrated in the northwestern part of the state.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has federal standards for how much Atrazine can be in a water source; the EPA is currently reviewing those standards.